Making Waves is the first of two exhibitions highlighting the important role of women artists in the museum’s contemporary collection. In this show, the works by international and Hawai‘i-based artists all have a relationship to water. Oceanscapes, waterfalls, sea creatures, and abstractions provide multiple interpretations of water—as a force (peaceful and destructive) of nature, a symbolic or mythological character, and as a subject for formal exploration.

Water plays a fundamental role in the life of all peoples, and its protection and conservation is especially relevant in Hawai‘i. The works in this exhibition may offer creative ways to think about how we interact with this essential liquid.